Ten years ago this week, the late Dwayne McDuffie published on SlushFactory.com one of his most often read (and repeated) essays, Six Degrees of St. Elsewhere (aka The Grand Unification Theory). The funny thing is; people will mostly remember the argument McDuffie made in defense of his point – but not the point itself.
McDuffie’s animated show, Static Shock, had just had a crossover episode that featured Batman and the Joker from Batman: The Animated Series. Some Batman fans were strident (McDuffie’s word) in their objection to Batman showing up on Static Shock. McDuffie suggested in his essay that character crossovers don’t have to mean anything to either show and that characters can “cross-over” from other works (TV and comics) and not necessarily bring all (or any) of their baggage with them. In other words, shows and comics that have characters crossover from another show (comic) can ignore whenever it is convenient any continuity from that character’s show. As such, if a character crosses over, his continuity doesn’t automatically pollute the continuity of the show he is a guest on nor does it automatically affect the character’s own continuity. That was McDuffie’s point and to prove his point, he postulated that if TV shows were bound to automatically include a crossover character’s continuity into its own, then “the last five minutes of St. Elsewhere is the only television show, ever. Everything else is a daydream.”
This was a brilliant point that was lost in an equally brilliant argument. As for me, I remain amazed that if you can make the link from St.Elsewhere to Knight Rider, you can take out the entire Star Trek franchise. Of course, the Star Trek: Deep Space 9 episode, Far Beyond the Stars, takes out the entire Star Trek universe by itself, but that’s a post for another day.
Anyway, as we approach the one year anniversary of McDuffie’s death, it’s fun (and scary) to see how logical his mind was.
Other related posts:
Some Batman fans were strident (McDuffie’s word) in their objection to Batman showing up on Static Shock.
Whereas some of us adored the crossovers because it meant we had ALL THESE OTHER CHARACTERS to play with now.
It’s funny, because what he could have dismissed with a simple, “He was on Scooby-Doo. Get over it,” he instead turned into this fantastic analysis of ’80s television.
There is no doubt that he was a talented (and smart) man. It’s sad that he didn’t get the same level of respect he deserved in life that he got in his passing. I’m glad you read this and commented…